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“Uh, sorry but we never asked you to get your master’s.”

This slap in the face was delivered during an interview I had for a job at one of the country’s largest and fastest growing social media companies. (In the interest of my future prospects, I won’t name it.)

I had just completed a Master of Arts in communication, culture, and technology at Georgetown University and had already told the interviewer I’d be willing to take a salary paying less than I was making beforegrad school. But still, he had to rub it in.

Two years, twenty-five pounds, and an obscene amount of money later and my master’s degree didn’t sound like a credential, but a mark against me. In the end, I wasn’t offered the job and could only wonder whether my master’s degree was the reason why.

We’ve all heard talk that investing $50,000 in a master’s degree might not pay off in terms of improved job prospects or higher salary. But could extra education actually hurt employability?

Perhaps.

Back at Georgetown, my classmates and I had envisioned our future desks (and perks) at Google, Facebook, Groupon, Twitter or some other social media heavyweights. We were, after all, learning the theories underlying their businesses. We all walked off campus with an expensive piece of paper, a prestigious education, and okay---I admit it---perhaps a bit overinflated egos.

Hundreds of interviews later, our egos have certainly been deflated. It’s not just the lowly assistant positions and small salaries we encounter. Even worse is the scorn we’ve all encountered at the mention of our Master of Arts degrees.

Graduate schools lure in prey by promising career advancement. But not all degrees deliver. Graduate degrees in information technology, computer programming and engineering have proven value. So do medical degrees. MBAs may, or may not, pay off. The humanities? Sometimes, it seems an advanced degree in the humanities can actually hinder a career (unless you’re going into something like public school teaching, where those with an advanced degree are automatically paid more.)

Fellow classmates report they’ve faced the same problem. Those in charge of hiring worry an “over educated” candidate will demand too much pay or be dissatisfied with what’s being offered. In fact, a sense of resentment has formed towards those who hold a master’s. “I didn’t ask you to get a master’s. You’re overqualified” (What does that even mean? I’ll be too good at this job?)

“Grad students have a sense of entitlement,’’ one manager told me, adding that those with such degrees seemed to think they should have his job.

My husband graduated with a master’s from the London Film School and has made five award winning short-films, including one that has gone into international distribution. Yet he was told by CNN, “Yeah, you’ve got talent and experience, but you have to start at the bottom”.

So if you’ve been working for a few years, should you leave your job to pursue an advanced degree and to improve your skills, only to return to find that you have to start at the bottom again? That is the $50,000 question (give or take several thousand, depending on program).

The classic advice has been to take a few years to work before grad school to find what you’re looking for. But my former classmates who went straight to graduate school immediately landed impressive jobs--- in contrast to those of us who interrupted our careers to get further education.

Granted, some of this may relate to economic conditions when we got out of school and to our individual situations. But there does seem to be pervasive resentment of those who take time out to get a degree. Sometimes it seems as if those who have gone to grad school are suspected of trying to jump the career advancement queue---and those in the workplace just aren’t going to let them.

There’s no right answer. I can’t say don’t get your master's, but I can’t say it’s not necessarily appreciated in the market right now.

Someday, perhaps, when the job market is no longer cutthroat, resentment will eventually subside (we hope).